Crusader Entertainment and Hyde Park have tapped Olympic gold medalist-turned-feature film screenwriter Mel Stewart to write a project based on The Phantom comics.
The comic has been adapted for the screen before. Billy Zane, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kristy Swanson and Treat Williams teamed to star in the Simon Wincer-directed 1996 feature, which grossed $17 million at the box office.
The superhero, clad in a purple suit, has no supernatural powers but appears immortal and fights evil in Africa. It is understood that the updated version will be modernized.
“While I like the comic book franchises of the 1990s, I always wanted to be able to identify with my hero more,” Stewart said. “Take all of the technology of 2004, where science fiction is no longer that — it’s science fact. If you had all that technology at your fingerprints, you would be a superhero.”
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
